Hosiery heel and method of making



Nov.6, 1934. I J. M; ALLEN 1,979,360

HOSIERY HEEL AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Filed Oct. 1, 1931 ml ent r: John /1//e/1.

Patented Nov. 6, 1 934 nosmmz HEEL AND METHOD or MAKING SAME John. M. Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Application October 1,

Claims.

The principal objects of this invention are, to devise a knitted fabric in the heel of a stocking which will cause it to conform to the shape of the foot so that the necessity for stretching or distortion of the stitches will be eliminated, and to provide a heel which will present a novel and attractive appearance.

. The principal feature of the invention consists in the novel manner of knitting the heel portion of thestocking whereby the direction of the wales is altered to conform to the bend of the heel with the. least amount of stress by the introduction of fashioning sutures angularly disposed with relation to the wales forming a pair of parallel sided 'gussets between the upright and horizontal portions of the heel.

i In the drawing, Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a stocking madein accordance with this invention as applied to a foot.

Figure 2 is; a perspective view of the heel of a stocking taken from the under and back side and showing the formation of the vertical. and hori-.

zontalheel sections with the'interposed gussets.

. Figure 3 is a side elevational view of the stock- 2 ins shown in the fiat.

Figure 4 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the manner of manipulating the needles on a cylinder knitting, machine to accomplish the result shown. In the manufacture of hoisery the usual practice is to knit the heel of the stocking with a diagonal suture on each side, first progressively narrowing and then progressively widening to form the heelpocket. I

In such constructions the outer ends of the 35,: sutures are prone to pucker and their presence requires steam'pressing and stretching to even partially reduce them, which of course places a great deal of; stress on various parts of the stocking. Further, it is known to those familiar with the merchandizing of stockings that the diagonal sutures are non-yielding and the longitudinal stress of the fabric in ordinary Wear reaches the extreme point along the line of the sutures.

Various attempts have been made to overcome i5 these difficulties and the present invention is considered to be a very distinct advance along this line.

In constructing. a stocking heel according to the present invention, the knitting of the leg portion of the stocking is carried on in the usual manner with the. full complement of needles until the points A and A' have been reached. Approximately one-half of the needles are lifted out of action and knitting is continued on the remaining needles with one needle being picked up out 1931, Serial No. 566,249

of action at the end of each course until at the point B only the last two needles remain in oper-- ation. Needles are then returned into action simultaneously to knit a course from the point B to the point A on one side of the heel then needles are lifted out of action from B to C simultaneously.

A. succession of courses are then knitted from A to C lifting needles out of action progressively from the point A to the point D and progressively dropping needles into action at the other end of the courses from the point C to the point B, thereby forming a gusset A, C, B, D withparallel sides;

Upon the completion of the last course of this gusset from B to D all of the needles from the point B to the point A on the other side of the heel are simultaneously returned to action knitting one course from B to A. As this course is knitted the needles are removed from operation from the point B to the point C simultaneously. Knitting is then continued from A to C lifting one needle out of action at the A end of the course and dropping one needle into action at the C end of the course; A plurality of courses of an equal number of stitches are then knitted, lifting a needle from,,aotion at one end and dropping a needle into action at the other end until a gusset is formed similar to that described as being knitted on the other side of the heel.

By this manipulation of the needles a pair of gussets E are knitted at opposite sides of the heel along the tapering sutures Fof the vertical wales. Bothof these gussets are formed with the same number of stitches in each course and consequently have substantially parallel sides and ends. Theadjacent two of these ends converge to the centre point B of the back of the stocking and the opposite ends extend substantially in a vertical direction with the wales of the gussets arranged at an obtuse angle to the vertical wales of the back portion of the stocking.

When the last courses of the gussets E have been completed the major number of the needles in operation are removed from action and between the points G and G knitting is continued bringing needles into action at each end of each course, preferably two at a time, until the bottom widening portion H has been completed to the points D.

The remainder of the needles previously taken out of action iromthe points D to A and D to A are. then returned simultaneously along with the half complement of needles withdrawn from actionat the points, A, A and the complete complement is placed into operation to continue in the circle knitting of the foot;

It will be seen from the drawing illustrating this invention that the wales of the back portion of the stocking leg extend downwardly to the sutures F in substantially vertical lines and these sutures taper at the ends from the point C to the point B and the pointed tip of the back of the heel between the points C and B extends in between the tapered ends C B and C B of the gussets.

The wales of the gussets extend in obtuse angular relation to the vertical wales of the leg portion and the Wales of the widening foot portion H and the portion continuing from between the points D and A extend parallel with the foot and at a substantiallyobtuse angle to the wales of the gussets. Sharp stretching of the fabric is thus avoided and the tapering of the gussets completely eliminates puckers or dog ears, providing a stocking heel which fits the foot neatly without the necessity of stertching which causes distortion and undue stress upon the threads in the various courses.

It will be noted that the diagonal ends of the gussets from C to B cause the wales of the pointed end of the narrowed back X to be drawn around into line with the wales of the bottom or outer ends of the gussets, consequently the fabric conforms naturally to the curvature of the heel of the wearer.

What I claim as my invention is:-

1. A stocking knitted with a pair of fashioning gussets extending diagonally across the heel one at each side thereof and having bordering suture lines converging abruptly at the ends to meet in angular relation in the median plane of the heel.

2. A stocking having courses at the back half narrowed progressively to a common point, gussets knitted to the converging narrowed edges of the back and having widened ends knitted to meet at the point of the back ends, and a widening portion knitted to said gussets.

3. A stocking having the back half thereof narrowed to a common point, gussets knitted to the converging narrowing sides and each having one end widening and extending to the point of the heel back and having the other end narrowing, and a widening portion knitted to said gussets to complete the stocking.

4. A stocking having the back half thereof narrowed to a point, gussets knitted to the narrowing sides and each having a widening end extending to the point of the heel back, said gussets having courses of substantially equal length, and a widening portion knitted to the portions of said gussets not knitted to the back portion.

5. A stocking knitted with a fashioned pocket, the back of which is narrowed and converges to a common point between the corners, gussets each widened downwardly to said common point knitted to the narrowed edges, and a widening portion knitted to the gussets.

6. A stocking knitted with the back half narrowed to a point, gussets knitted to the narrowed edges of said back half and each having one end widened and knitted along the narrowed edges of the narrowed back portion to the point thereof, said gussets having their opposite ends progressively narrowed, and a widening portion knitted to the sides of said gussets remote from the narrowed back portion and having an abruptly widened portion knitted to the narrowing ends of said gussets.

'7. A method of making hosiery consisting in knitting the leg portion, then knitting there-to a heel portion narrowed to a point, then knitting to either side of the narrowed point an equal number of courses, picking needles out of action at the outer ends of the courses and into action at the inner ends of the courses adjacent to the narrowed heel, and finally knitting in widening heel and foot portions.

8. A method of making hosiery consisting in first knitting the leg portion to the commencement of the heel, then narrowing the heel to a point, then simultaneously throwing into action a predetermined number of needles at each side of the heel knitting a course from each of the points of commencement of the heel to points adjacent to the terminal point of the narrowed heel section, then knitting successive courses with the same number of needles lifting one needle out of action at the commencement end of each course and dropping one needle into action at the completion end of each course and forming a pair of gussets having their outer terminal ends joined together at the point of the heel, and then knitting a widening portion to the edges of said gussets.

9. A method of making hosiery consisting in first knittingthe leg portion to the commencement of the heel, then throwing a portion of the needles temporarily out of action continuing to knit a heel section by progressively lifting needles out of action until the fabric is knitted to a point, then throwing into action at either side of the heel section a plurality of needles corresponding in number to the number progressively withdrawn on that side in the narrowing of the heel and knitting a. course from the heel point to the point of commencement, then withdrawing from action a portion of the group of needles simultaneously returned and knitting progressive courses with the same number of needles narrowing at the commencement ends and widening at the outer ends until the addedcourses join together, then knitting a portion progressively widening until the same number of needles are in operation as used in the last courses of the insert portions, then simultaneously bringing into operation at each side the remaining needles to complete the knitting of the foot.

10. A method of knitting hosiery consisting in first knitting the leg portion to the commencement of the heel then narrowing the heel to a point, then knitting a course along one of the narrowed sides of the heel back to the point of commencement, then removing from action a number of the needles returned into action from the heel point to a point intermediate of the length of the tapered side, then knitting a plurality of courses removing a needle from action at the commencement end of each course and returning a needle into action at the outer end of each course and forming a gusset narrowed at the inner end and widened at the outer end, then continuing the last course of knitting along the other side of the heel, then removing the needles from action used in the last course of the gusset and the needles in operation between the point of the heel and a point intermediate of the length of the other tapered side of the heel, then knitting a plurality of courses removing one needle from action at the commencement end of each course and returning one needle into action at the outer end of each course and knitting a gusset narrowing at the inner end and widening at the outer end until the outer ends of the two gussets meet, then simultaneously removing a plurality of the needles of the outer end of the last course knitted and is continued until the progressively widened fabric has been completed to the end of the narrowed portion of each of the gussets, and then simultaneously returning the complement of needles to complete the knitting of the foot.

12. A stocking having spaced courses knitted to form fashioning sutures angularly disposed with relation to the wales, and a plurality of courses extending between said sutures each successive course having an equal number of stitches and having its point of commencement and point of completion offset from the point of commencement and point of completion of the preceding course forming a pair of parallel-sided gussets with opposite tapered ends between the upright and horizontal portions of the heel.

13. A stocking knitted with the back half narrowed to converge toa common point, a pair of gussets knitted one to each of the narrowed edges of said back half and each gusset having one end widened and knitted along therespective narrowed edge of the narrowed back portion to the point thereof, the other ends of said gussets being tapered, and a widening portion knitted to the gusset edges remote from the edges joined to the narrowed back.

14QA stocking knitted with a fashioned heel pocket having at each side paired suture lines parallel in part and extending diagonally across the wales, one suture line of each pair having its end angularly related to and continuous with the adjacent end of the corresponding suture line of the pair on the other side of the heel, said paired suture lines having tapered gussets interposed therebetween.

15. A stocking having courses knitted to form on either side of the foot a pair of parallelly spaced fashioning sutures, the courses arranged between and separating said parallel sutures all having the same number of stitches and extending parallel to said sutures.

JOHN M. ALLEN. 

